With the increasing cost of food, many people are writing about “growing your own food”. In some instances, they describe situations which aren’t representative of the average family with an average garden. Two Acre walled Gardens, the ability to keep livestock (usually chickens), etc. or they are growing things that aren’t practical or useful (Asparagus,…… Continue reading Growing Vegetables at Home – Growing for Value
Category: GrowHome
Growing at Home – Last of the Carrots
Growing carrots is something that requires the soil to be of reasonable quality. We are clay and so our carrots never really grow very well, forking and stumpy. However, when I created the raised beds, I filled them with a mixture of garden compost, bought compost and well rotted farmyard manure. The result is a…… Continue reading Growing at Home – Last of the Carrots
Chitting Potatoes
I haven’t grown potatoes since giving up the allotment. Even then, I really only grew them to fill space. However, this year I’ve decided to minimise the amount of time I spend growing vegetables but I still need to fill the various spaces. So, potatoes get a chance this year. I’ll plant a few in…… Continue reading Chitting Potatoes
2022 – Deciding what else to grow
Whilst most of what I write about is my tomatoes, there is also space for other vegetables and fruit, some of which are permanent and others which I have to decide about. I’ve already sown broadbeans which are growing well and will give us something in around May. The strawberry plants in the tunnel are…… Continue reading 2022 – Deciding what else to grow
2022 – Deciding which Tomatoes to Grow
At this time of year, I always have a problem deciding which tomato cultivars to grow. When I first started growing tomatoes and recording what I’d grown (a long time ago now it seems), I had plenty of space and an allotment so I grew lots of plants of lots of different cultivars (my record…… Continue reading 2022 – Deciding which Tomatoes to Grow
Harvest – Mid October 2021
The days are drawing in, the evenings are darker and the weather is significantly cooler. However, there are still green tomatoes, some of which seem to be ripening others of which are succumbing to blight. Since the last harvest post we’ve picked another 9kg of tomatoes, four cucumbers, 2kg of carrots, half a kilo each…… Continue reading Harvest – Mid October 2021
Harvest- End of September 2021
The season is beginning to come to an end. We’re still getting tomatoes (another 9kg since our last post) but the plants are looking decidedly sickly with botrytis/grey mould killing off the ends of the plants, the leaves and (more frequently now) the fruit. It looks like the problem has affected even the fruit that…… Continue reading Harvest- End of September 2021
Harvest – Mid August 2021
The year progresses and (at last) we’re getting tomatoes with the total (as of today) at just about 4kg. What’s interesting is how it varies from year to year. 2020 and 2018 by now had around 15kg but 2019 was only 1.5kg (that’s all I’ve got weekly totals for). In a week or so, I’ll…… Continue reading Harvest – Mid August 2021
Perhaps Tomatoes? – August 2021
With any luck we’re just beginning to see the start of the season with a small quantity (350g) just beginning to ripen. The season is well behind last year (by now we’d picked around 8kg) but not far off what we picked by this time in 2019 so the season is obviously not with us.…… Continue reading Perhaps Tomatoes? – August 2021
At Last! – Tomatoes starting to Ripen & other things
Minibel (outside)Sandpoint (in greenhouse)Oleron YellowFirst harvest!!First Fruit showing colour About two weeks later than normal, our tomatoes are beginning to show signs of ripening. Although we normally get a few tomatoes starting around 11th July, this year they seem late. I think its a combination of not growing the cultivars that are reliably early (Bloody…… Continue reading At Last! – Tomatoes starting to Ripen & other things